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Webber bullish on form despite strong competition

April 18, 2013

Mark Webber was the second fastest car in the second practice session in Bahrain, but he was optimistic about his car's speed. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

Mark Webber was second fastest at the end of the second Formula One practice session in Bahrain on Friday, and while the Aussie was optimistic about the car’s speed over one lap, the consensus is that Ferrari and Lotus looked strong on race pace.

“We didn’t get to do enough laps, unfortunately, in P2,” said Webber. “I will have to rely on Sebastian’s data, and see how it went for him. Overall, when I was on track, I was not too bad at all, I’m pretty happy with the car. But never, ever rest on our laurels, there’s still areas to improve, and we need to say how we’re progressing on both cars as well in terms of developments, and pick out what we need for tomorrow.

“I think the car looks really competitive, but again, we see Kimi arrive for one lap every now and again, and he’s still very, very fast. Kimi is strong, Ferrari are strong, Mercedes is still there as well. It’s very, very tight; the first three or four rows are very, very tight on time, and the Force Indias are in there as well.”

Webber does of course go into qualifying with the three-place penalty he picked up in China.

“Let’s see how qualifying goes, and then after that obviously the race is more important. Especially for me with the penalty, for sure I won’t be starting on pole! But I need to clear people in the race somehow.”